Canada men's volleyball stopped by Ukraine at Summer Universiade quarters

CIS:KAZAN, Russia (July 13, 2013) Canadas chance to move into the mens volleyball semifinals for the second straight Universiade ended abruptly with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-23) loss to undefeated Ukraine, on Saturday evening.

The Canucks (3-2), fourth two years ago in Shenzhen, China, will face South Korea (3-2) in consolation action Sunday at 1 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET). The South Koreans were defeated by Poland in five sets in their quarter-final match.

Late errors by Canada and strong serving by Ukraine led to a 25-21 opening set loss despite an early 7-4 lead.

The red and white rebounded and made a strong bid to tie things up in the second frame, which was the closest of the match as the rivals remained within two points of each other throughout. Outstanding defence on the back line allowed Ukraine to eke out a 25-23 victory.

Six-foot-eight middle Kostiantyn Riabukha and left side attacker Ian Iereshchenko then ensured the winners remained firmly in control in the final stanza and the unbeaten side scored another 25-23 set win.

Theyre strong players and theyre going to show up for games like this. It was up to us to slow them down and we didnt quite figure it out soon enough, said left side hitter Marc Howatson of Victoria (Trinity Western University).

They were good in their block and their defence, so its a credit to all of our spikers that they were able to get all of the kills that they did, added Canadian head coach Larry McKay.

Nicolas Hoag of Sherbrooke, Que., led Canada in kills for the third time in five matches in Kazan, recording 15. Steven Marshall of Abbotsford, B.C. (Trinity Western) had a strong game on the left side with 14 kills.

His university teammate Lucas Van Berkel of Edmonton was a factor in the middle, logging six blocks and providing thunderous kills at key moments to keep Canada within striking distance.

We have really good players on this team who are hoping to emerge internationally and they got an excellent team to measure themselves against today, said McKay. We get another excellent team tomorrow, so in that sense this is an excellent tournament for us to be in.

You wish you go at it again, but you cant so you have to move on and do as best you can, said Howatson. Were going for fifth, no regrets.

BOXSCORE:Canada vs Ukraine

Team Canada website:http://english.cis-sic.ca/universiade/summer/2013
Team Canada Twitter: @CDNUniversiade | #gocanada
Summer Universiade website:www.kazan2013.com/en

Source: http://boxscorenews.com/canada-mens-volleyball-stopped-by-ukraine-at-summer-universiade-quarters-p58517-163.htm

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